Chinese police have taken in three of the four men charged with murdering a Taiwanese businessman in the Southern province of Suzhou, according to the China Times yesterday.
The body of Ilan county native Hsu Shih-chieh (許世杰) was discovered in the trunk of his own car over a week after he had gone missing last September. Hsu had been working and residing in China as the head of a company that manufactures air conditioning units.
Of the four convicted felons, one has yet to be turned into authorities. Two have received the death sentence while one was named an accomplice to the murder and sentenced to 7 years in jail. One of the men facing capital punishment will be held for two years before the sentence is delivered during which time he can be paroled.
According to Chinese investigative officials, one of the three convicted men had approached Hsu on the night of his murder posing as a traffic police offer and later stole 3,000 Chinese yuan (US$360), two cellular phones, a Rolex watch, and two ATM cards. Police said that Hsu had been strangled to death later that night with a piece of wire. Hsu's body was placed in his trunk and left in a vacant parking lot.
The China Times reported that police were able to solve the case after a store selling second-hand cell phones had come across Hsu's stolen phone.
The Mainland Affairs Council has continually pressed Beijing to sign an agreement to protect the rights and safety of Taiwanese businesspeople in China.
According to records provided by the Straits Exchange Foundation in September, the semi-official organization that oversees all Taiwanese investment in China, 63 Taiwanese businesspeople have been murdered while working and living in China since 1991; 115 taishang have gone missing; 50 have been kidnapped or illegally detained by authorities; and 78 have been robbed or otherwise physically harmed.
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